Thursday, December 27, 2012

How to Fight the Neocons

I receive a surprising number of emails asking me about specific "libertarian" organizations and whether it makes sense to donate to them. I also receive requests from various organizations asking for an endorsement. I am in general reluctant to do endorse most of these organizations. The success of Ron Paul spreading the freedom message has resulted in many groups attempting to ride on his coattails, some, over time, will prove to be important allies in the fight for freedom, others will prove otherwise. They can all talk a good game on launch, but only the test of time will prove how consistent they are and how capable they are. Thus, I have decided to limit my endorsements at this time to three organizations: The Mises Institute, LewRockwell.com and AntiWar.com. I may add to this list in the future, I am monitoring a few. But for now, these are the only three that I am comfortable endorsing. All three have stood the test of time and maintained a hardcore libertarian stance across a spectrum of issues and are capably managed. Below Lew Rockwell reports on the recent attack against one of them, LRC, by the statist, neocon Southern Poverty Law Center.-RW

Why Do the Neocons Hate LRC?
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The other day, the Southern Poverty Law Center discovered a set of ideas that had to be stomped out of existence: anarcho-capitalism. That’s LewRockwell.com, of course. But the SPLC will have to get in line behind the rest of the neocons: the NY Times, the Washington Post, National Review, theWall Street Journal, Commentary, the Weekly Standard, and the rest of the gang – none of them much like this site.

Is that a reason to despair, or crow? Well, let’s examine the neocons. As Ron Paul has pointed out, they call themselves “big-government conservatives” and “national greatness conservatives.” This bunch, which runs the Republican party, the conservative movement, and some of the left, too, has been Ron’s most vicious enemy. They know how close he is to LRC, and that he's said it's the “first site I read every morning.”

Neocons believe deeply in militarism, the corporate State, the police State, the welfare State, the national security State, permanent war, ultra-nationalism, central banking, global empire, and the “noble lie.” The noble lie, by the way, is any propaganda that helps foist their rule on us, and is therefore justified. In other words, they’re fascists.

And whom do the neocons hate the most? Whom do they feel most threatened by? Libertarians. Not the “libertarians” paid by the Koch Bros., who are effective allies of the neocons. But Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists, we who advocate Austrian economics, truth-telling history, and real freedom and property. We who understand that society does not need a set of despicable overlords, and that – in Murray Rothbard’s words – “the State is a gang of thieves writ large.” We who hold that the moral law applies across the board, and that one is not exempted from it by a government suit.

If something is wrong for you or me, it is also wrong for the cop, the soldier, the mayor, the governor, the general, the Fed chairman, the president. Theft does not become acceptable when they call it taxation, counterfeiting when they call it monetary policy, kidnapping when they call it the draft, mass murder when they call it foreign policy. We understand that it is never acceptable to wield violence nor the threat of violence against the innocent, whether by the mugger or the politician.

When it comes to that cabal of plutocrats and their henchmen known as Washington, DC, we do not salute . We do not consent to their dastardly deeds, nor their rule over us. And we never refer to the government as “we.”

So why is LRC in particular so hated by the neocons, the fascists, the commissars, the reich-wingers? Well, we only have to ask: what is the world center of anarcho-capitalism? What has turned more neocons into libertarians than anything else? What teaches the philosophy of freedom, real ecoomics, and truthful history to millions all over the world? What exposes everything from the Pentagon to Big Pharma, official historians to Keynesian economists? What is the largest circulation anarcho-capitalist publication in history? What, that is, makes the neocons spitting mad? Well, it’s LRC.

Ever since I turned my rolodex into an email list and then into a website, we’ve been making real progress, especially among the young, in this country and many others. You should see the moving and thrilling emails I get. People credit LRC with changing their lives. And that is what infuriates – and scares – the neocons. They want to shut LRC down.

So, what should we do about it? For you, as for me, there is only one answer: carry the intellectual fight into their homeland. Never despair. Never stop. Never give up. Never retreat. For we have the truth on our side. We have the great ideas.

The huge, centralized army of the bad guys appears to be winning. But our guerillas are driving them crazy. And guerrillas always beat big, centralized armies. As Ron Paul showed, the young are increasingly with us. The neocons are yesterday’s men.

Lew Rockwell

Every dollar you send is a slap in the face to the arrogant enemies of liberty, to those who say, with Mussolini, “Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” If you know the State is our greatest enemy on earth, if you appreciate LRC as its opponent, if you support our fight, if you stand with us, if you want to be able to continue to read a new LRC 6 days a week, please make a generous gift. I would be so grateful.

December 27, 2012

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail], former editorial assistant to Ludwig von Mises and congressional chief of staff to Ron Paul, is founder and chairman of the Mises Institute, executor for the estate of Murray N. Rothbard, and editor of LewRockwell.com.

Lew himself applauds the efforts of the The Future of Freedom Foundation http://fff.org/

I know it is important to keep the list small but we also must not centralize our efforts in one organization that, however devout and good, can be taken out by the feds. Lew has admirably moved his servers offshore and mirrored them elsewhere but we still should be decentralized in our fight. Anti-War also. Both have the same webmaster and that is a vulnerability.

Please also consider Scott Horton. Horton was once the Host of antiwar.com's antiwar radio. They had to lay him off due to budget cuts so now he is applying his plum line libertarianism and foreign policy expertise to the Scott Horton Show at Scotthorton.org

I have to respectfully disagree with the description of the Southern Poverty Law Center as statist or neo-conservative: They are opportunists and textbook examples of paleo-capitalists.

The SPLC's target audience consists of self-described liberals because Morris Dees was able to obtain the donor lists for the McGovern, Carter, Ted Kennedy and Hart campaigns. Those lists have grown considerably since.

Dees, who made his first millions in the early 60s through his mail-order outfit that sold everything from birthday cakes to bathmats, knows how to tailor his advertising pitch to his audience. He doesn't give a rat's about what he's selling them, just as long as they keep buying it.

Last year, Dees donors sent him more than $106,000 tax-free dollars each and every day (That's over $4,400 every hour), and that doesn't include the millions in interest generated by his quarter-BILLION dollar cash reserves, also, tax-free.

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-d3

THAT, friends, is the philosophy that drives Morris Dees and his SPLC. Nothing more. If every Conservative in the country were to send Mr. Dees a ten-dollar bill next year he would spearhead the effort to denounce the Left at every turn.

Don't credit Dees with any deeply held ideology. He just wants to make as much money as he can with as little government interference as possible and he doesn't want to spend a dime on taxes. Dees is a consummate capitalist.